Story 8/11/2019
The session started off with the group having just defeated Bradliegh Medda and his chain gang goons. They realized they were no longer welcome in Miradore and decided to head towards Solstice to try and see if Zadicus would show up. Along the way, several things happened. First, they leveled up to 10! Klon and Shalara also successfully attuned with The Tarsius (the hat), after corrected guessing their pen pal with The Gaviallis. Klon's pen pal was Ustalar, who seemed to be preparing for the attack on Thalstead. Shalara's pen pal was Arkilius, who seemed to be pretty close to present day. Arkilius kept trying to find out where the group was, and it accidentally slipped to him that the group had the hat and the pen. Klon looked through the Serevictus, and said he saw Arkilius slowly walking through a dense forest, with a cadre of mostly animals and a small handful of human hunters behind him, also walking slowly. They seemed to be entranced by the tiefling. The group got to Solstice, and set up shop in the Chill Axe Inn, waiting for Zadicus. Zadicus appeared to arrive, but wasn't acting at all like Zadicus did, although he appeared and sounded exactly like him. Lunashe even did a detect object on one of Zadicus's pieces of clothing, and it came up negative. Zadicus sat around the table with Aeowyn, Klon, Lunashe, Khaelis and Erevan. Beorn and Shalara kept their distance. Zadicus kept saying "it's me", and eventually revealed it was Visimeon (the fortune teller from Neyford and Dragus). Visimeon said the group was still upsetting the balance, but she was taking a less standoffish approach, and was trying to get them to join her organization. She said she was a part of the Court of Shadows, and that Lanaya (from the Temple of Pelor) was also part of the Court. The Court believes that the gods are bad for the world, and that it would be best to completely phase them out. The first step is to collect and/or stop mortals from using powerful objects and artifacts. That usage is what allows the gods to interact with the mortal world, either directly through their followers or indirectly in arcanic ways. If mortals would stop using objects, the gods' power would be greatly diminished. After that, the next phase is to stop all religious followings. Without any followers, most gods would simply fade into nothingness, and the world would be better. She said that even though there are benevolent gods like Pelor, the good they do does not outweigh the bad of most gods. She said that she knew they would be here because they read Beorn's message to Zadicus. She slipped that they were using magic objects to do that, but she didn't seem to know anything about the branching mechanism of the planar arts. Beorn slipped behind her, and held a knife to her throat. She decided to back down, but did walk with Lunashe for a bit after leaving. Zadicus never arrived, so the group looked in the tome of the high priest of Pelor, and learned that Ecrozahr's robes (The Drachma) were in a city called Lumence. After loosing his hat, he went to Lumence to try and create a branch to recover it. He overstayed his welcome, and lost his robes as he was kicked out of the city. The group traveled to Lumence, and along the way found a map of the entire continent. They also learned that Lumence was a totalitarian city, run by 5 Bureaus that keep each other in check, rather than having a king or a ruling center. The city was bigger than Thalstead and smaller than Miradore, and moderately prosperous but extremely peaceful. They forbade magic and religious symbols, and had very strict processing and tracking for what happened in the city. The group arrived, and after a 6 hour wait in line, tried to get into the city, but the investigator got agitated with them and sicked their Shardmind guards on them. Eventually, 12 total Shardminds showed up, and completely overwhelmed the group who fled from the fight, assisted by Lunashe turning into a Giant Elk to scoop up a few of the party, and Erevan creating a force wall to keep them at bay. The group then decided the best way to enter the city was to sneak in, and find the robes from there. <------------------ Previous Session [[Story 10/12/2019|Next Session ------------------------->]]